York Too Much for Men’s Basketball

 CCNY Men’s Basketball lost their third straight game on Friday night, falling 79-68 to York College. City opened with what may have been their best opening four minutes of the season, however the Beaver’s 13-4 run to open Friday night’s matchup against York was eliminated quickly in the Beavers’ 79-68 loss to the Cardinals at Nat Holman Gymnasium.CCNY’s hot start was forgotten about quick as the Cardinals went on a 21-2 run in the following six minutes to take the commanding 23-15 lead, a lead that York would hang on to for the rest of the night.For the seventh time in as many games, both Anthony Lewis and Khalil Hamer hit the double digit mark in scoring with Lewis scoring a team-high 26 points and 11 rebounds while Hamer ended his night with 19 points, including a 10-for-10 effort at the free throw line.The Cardinals’ Omar St. John finished the night scoring a game-high 29 points as three Cardinals finished in double digits Friday night – Jaron Williams finished with 17 points and Cyril Reid had 11.“We were just on fire,” CCNY head coach Tom Green said about his team’s start.  “We were just trying to enjoy it while we could.  We knew they were going to catch fire at some point.“Overall I thought our team battled but just came short.”City allowed the Cardinals to shoot on 50 percent of their shots from the court on the night, majority of which coming in the paint, while holding York to just a 5-for-12 effort from beyond the arc and just 6-for-16 from the free throw line.“We’ve got to stick to people and draw some charges,” Green said about the Beavers inability to protect the paint.  “We’re allowing some guys to come in for easy baskets.”Despite the run, CCNY didn’t go down easy.  CCNY rallied back late in the first half to bring the score within four, 42-38, going into the locker room after a big three pointer by Fran Kilinski with 11 seconds left in the half.The rally effort didn’t last long as City found themselves down 59-48 with 9:37 left as York opened the second on a 17-10 run in the first 10 minutes with the Cardinals starting to pull away.  A layuo by freshman Salvatore Pizzarolo put City back within five, 59-54 with 8:14 left, and a pair of free throws by Hamer brought City within three, 61-58 with 6:47 left, however the rally effort fell short after the Cards finished the game on a 14-8 run in the final four minutes.“I feel like we started out hot, but that just goes back to the mental aspect of it,” Kilinski said after the game.  “We need to constantly play at a level where we need to expect misses, expect runs by the other team, expect slumps by us.  So it just comes down to staying focused and preparing for the worst honestly.“We really need to just mentally bear down because we have all of the physical talent, it just comes down to mentals and focus.”The Beavers (3-4, 0-2 CUNYAC) have two more big conference games before the Christmas break, both coming on the road at John Jay and Hunter beginning on Tuesday night at John Jay.